I met him once while traveling across the US, we shared a meal on a sunny Pasadena summer afternoon. He was a very accessible man, whom I think also desired to be acknowledged by the person in front of him, not out of pride, but out of a need to connect at a real human level. He asked me to share with him about my life growing up in french-speaking Quebec, Canada.

It is possible that he knew he had a superior understanding of the Incarnation, but that realization didn’t cause him to “pose.” I read many of the books he generously gave me and loved to bathe my eyes in a multitude of words and concepts my mind could never really grasp, I knew it. He was a vibrant creative soul, ploughing fields of theology far beyond anything I could imagine (it was evidenced to me as I poured over his book “Historical Transcendence And The Reality Of God.” A real mind-twister and stretcher, but a sharp flaming arrow shot in the night of psychological probing of the mysteries of God’s Incarnation and the many ways it can relates to us).

But here and there a “ray” of revelation would pierce through and I would find myself in wonder before his observations, as many of them met my own experience. His writings certainly revealed a profound affection and understanding for human nature, as interfacing with God’s nature.

He graciously let me bless him in return by creating the cover for his book “The Soul of God”, which he had sent me prior to publication so I could share with him my impressions and ideas. What humility! My highest degree is grade 12, and I’ve lived in some of the darkest places a human soul could crawl in. But that was Ray…

Last year, in April, he shared of his health problems. The last words he wrote me, “Health not so good, dialysis three days a week, leaves me weak and without much energy. But a ‘weak’ day is still a gift from God.” Included with his email, a text about “shame” he allowed me to post in one of my newsletter: http://www.thekneelingheart.com/april9_2009_4.htm#ray

I just learned tonight, through your post, of his departure last year, hardly 2 months after our last correspondance. I was truly sadenned, but I’m smiling now at the thought of him sitting with Jesus and Paul, finally joined with absolute Reality.
I will remember him. He simply loved a simple man.

Time to expand my library: I’d like to know what the title of your book is and where I could get a copy?

Regards and blessings,

Andre Lefebvre
Alberta, Canada